Educational Science

Rising Seas and Stronger Storms Threaten New York City

Global warming could substantially raise sea levels around New York City over the next century and put the Big Apple at greater risk of being flooded by hurricane waves, a new computer model predicts. Sea level around the city could jump 15 to 19 inches by 2050 and by more...

Tool Time: Crows Share Tricks of the Trade

Bird brained they might be, but crows are the MacGyvers of the avian world, able to turn twigs and even their own feathers into tools for getting at hard-to-reach food. But while young crows are born with a propensity for crafting tools, it's only after watching their elders make and...

The pressure of the eyelid on the eyeball could cause one of the most common vision problems, new research shows. The work builds on previous research showing that heavy reading can change the shape of the eye during the day, temporarily degrading eyesight. Imperfections in the shape of the cornea,...

Why We Love to be Scared

For all of their stomach-turning gore, horror films and haunted houses attract people in droves. This ability of the human brain to turn fear on its head could be a key to treating phobias and anxiety disorders, according to scientists. When people get scared, their bodies automatically triggers the fight...

Human Activity Linked to Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse

Human-caused global warming was responsible for the collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf in 2002, scientists said today. Changing weather patterns, a consequence of global warming, has caused stronger westerly winds to blow warm air from the middle latitudes to the Antarctic Peninsula. These winds are responsible for the summer...

Sucking Up: Why Monkeys Groom the Boss

Sucking up to win the support of the boss dates back to our furry ancestors. The motivation, for monkeys, is life and death. Rather than grabbing coffee for the CEO, monkeys have for eons picked dead skin and bugs from the fur of higher-ranking monkeys. They do it in exchange...

World's 10 Most Polluted Places

Areas that researchers have declared the most polluted in the world are typically little known even in their own countries. Yet they in total afflict more than 10 million people, experts reported today. The kinds of pollution in these areas not only lead to cancers, birth defects, mental retardation and...

Ancient Miniature Buffalo Discovered

The bones of an extinct dwarf species of buffalo were recently unearthed on the Philippine island of Cebu. Dubbed Bubalus cebuensis (BOO-buh-luhs seh-boo-EN-sis), the miniature buffalo [image] stood at just more than two feet, three times smaller than today's domestic buffalo, and weighed a mere 350 pounds. It probably lived...

Microscopic Robot Lends Helping Hand

A microscopic robot hand, made of silicon and plastic balloons, could help perform surgery and defuse bombs. The microhand is so tiny that when clenched into a fist it measures a little over one millimeter across, or roughly as thick as a dime [image]. It is made using silicon finger...

The World's Worst Thunderstorms

A new global satellite survey of thunderstorm activity has helped meteorologists pinpoint exactly where Earth’s hotspots for intense thunderstorms are: the American Midwest, Argentina , and some semi-arid regions like the edges of the Sahara desert. The new study, which appeared in the August issue of the Bulletin of the...